Social and Political Life in the Vijayanagara Empire (A.D. 1346 – A.D. 1646) v2.c22.s3.92

v2.c22.s3.92

It is superfluous to state that Kṛṣṇa Dēva Rāya's popularity was universal. The epigraphs which we have selected here, convey very meagrely the love and regard which the people of southern India bore him, and which has been handed down to our times. Śripati Rāya Timmaya's son *Rāyapaṃ* Koṇḍamarusu granted in A. D. 1512 the village of Rāyakuṇṭa, otherwise called Ayōdhyāpura, in the Penugoṇḍa kingdom, for the worship of the seasons of the god Rāmachandra of Penugoṇḍa, in order that *dharma* might be to Vira Kṛṣṇa Rāya and merit to Śripati Timmapa.⁵ A gift of land was made by the same great general for the same purpose in the same year (Śaka 1434, Āṅgirasa) to the temple of Mallikārjuna-dēva at Kambhadūru, Anantapur district.⁶ A private person built the temple of Virabhadra at Kommuru, Kistna district, in honour of the great monarch in A. D. 1516.¹ According to the late Mr. H. Kṛiṣhṇa Śāstri, we have to interpret an inscription dated A. D. 1517-18 in the sense that a grant of land was made to the temple of Chauḍēśvari at Chōḷasamudram, Anantapur district, in order that the same ruler might have issue. Here too it was again the same great Brahman-general Koṇḍamarusayya, son of Timmarasu-mantri, who made the gift.² Harihara Nāyaka, son of Mallappa Nāyaka, in Śaka 1441 (A. D. 1519-20) gave as a gift revenue amounting to 33½ paṇam to the temple of Tirumala-Uḍaiya-Nāyiṇār at Dēvasthānam Dēvakkāpuram, North Arcot district, for the merit of the Emperor Kṛiṣhṇa Dēva Rāya and Tirumalai Nāyaka.³